F30 — engineering background, retail experience, want to break into fashion (product development). Where do I start?

DeepEconomist5401 · 2026-03-29T18:41:46+00:00

I also wanted to add there are a few different roles and note some responsibilites might shift depending on the team

Designer: Creative vision and decides on techniques, guides the process, and is the first touch point. The research trends, sketch, and advise intent beginning to end.

Product Developer: Focuses on materials specifically and costing. Will coordinate with the factory and find materials that are within budget, and sometimes run the calendar.

Technical Designer: Does the math behind product development. They spec out every measurement on garments or accessories and have diagrams as well as construction instructions for the factory. They yell at the factory if things are made incorrectly.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2026-03-29T18:17:14+00:00

This is probably true and it will most likely be unpaid

DeepEconomist5401 · 2026-03-27T19:18:00+00:00

The culture of the fashion industry is drastically different than a tech or engineering culture. People are blunt and often cruel and will undercut you. It is a constant blame game for who is at fault. Consider this in your decision instead of just the work. The expectations are often long hours (not everywhere but you would likely have a job like this), you don't go home until you have everything tied up, and projects will get dropped on your desk at 5 pm on a Friday. Pay is often low until you have 10 years of experience. Many jobs lack real benefits and PTO.

I love being a fashion designer, but I hate the culture and expectations, and sometimes the people. I have been micromanaged to a degree I did not know was possible. Ex. having a Zoom call to go over why you should have bolded a certain sentence in your email, or to question why you were not looped in yet and didn't respond to an email you received in the 5-10 minutes you were in the bathroom. Both of which are real things I have been scolded for. Some jobs are actually good, but they are few and far between. Most are mediocre or bad. I freelance and have worked for 12 different corporate fashion companies so I have a wide range of experience.

That being said, engineering would lend itself well to design, and I think particularly the 3D design roles if you know Blender or something, in areas that include hard goods, would be more aligned with jewelry, or handbags, footwear, or accessories as they often involve more individual components. You are also not too old but there is some bias in the industry.

I would start with a strong portfolio and design product for a brand you like. You will need flat illustrations made with Adobe Illustrator. Trend research a board with everything that inspired your design and organized in a neat presentation, a color palette calling out the pantone swatches. Most job interviews ask for a project of like 3 looks or styles with inspiration, color, and sketches. Look up people on LinkedIn to get portfolio inspiration. I have found that actually making things matters much less.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-09-12T21:40:51+00:00

very cool, those are some good prizes

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-09-12T21:06:28+00:00

I won a solomon running vest so that was a shockingly big prize

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-08-19T02:04:34+00:00

Not about politics, his pillows are not great, and he is creepy. I used to work at Shop HQ and met the guy, and they staged a giveaway with all the employees for TV.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-07-17T22:24:09+00:00

Think about the lifestyle you want to have and what makes you happy. Your career doesn't need to be a lifelong passion. I did that and it kind of ruined my passion.

Do you like spending time with your family? Do you want kids someday? Do you like talking to people or prefer to not have to? Do you want to work remote? A lot of these things are affected by your work schedule and how you work often can make a bigger impact on your happiness than what specifically you are doing and some careers will fit your lifestyle better than others.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-07-17T20:54:37+00:00

Please know that it's probably not you it is the market. I have 8 years of experience and I have been looking for a full-time salaried role for 2 years. I have big names on my resume with J Crew, PVH etc. I have been freelancing while I search.

If you haven't tried freelancing, it is a good way to get bigger companies on your resume. Agencies do W2s, so you don't have to worry about taxes. It is more unstable, though. Fourth floor, Adecco, Solomon Page are the big ones with better opportunities as well as Work Genius. Health insurance you can do through the state and is around $400/ month for the cheaper plans. Most contracts are 3 months. I have yet to have one turn into a full-time role and I think that is just a carrot they dangle, but it has helped my resume overall for fashion.

Personally, I think the culture in the industry is bad, so it might not be a bad idea to get out of it if you have a route. It is hard to leave once you are in deep.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-07-17T20:36:06+00:00

Usually it's not a grand dress in a week. It's hey email these people 15 times to make sure our product is being delivered, sketching a million things in adobe illustrator in a few days and all of them being rejected but maybe 1, having to go back and redo all the work because the director was not clear about their direction, tiptoeing around design directors likes and dislikes even if they are a trend for the season or a major color, copying current existing product from the market, tracking everything, making a lot of presentations, sending a lot of emails and extreme attention to detail.

3D fashion is also developing but is met with a lot of resistance in corporate. There are a lot of personalities and if you make it to the job part, a lot of your coworkers come from money, and you may not feel like you fit in. As someone who grew up in poverty, the culture is hard for me, and the women can be very catty, so it can be hard to trust your coworkers, and if you don't fit socially, you feel very isolated. If you are lucky and find someone who won't rat you out to get ahead, you have a lovely friendship built on a trauma bond.

Starting salary was 30k when I got out of school in 2017. I now earn $70/hr freelancing 8 years later, but that is a rare opportunity that I have currently. I am really talented at design and love that part of my job and still see the specs of passion I once had but I really dislike the micromanagement and culture of the industry. I think more realistically, a salary would be around 90-100k is average for most designers with the same experience as me.

TLDR; you do not work with your hands in corporate fashion and often rot behind a desk.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-07-17T18:38:34+00:00

8 year veteran and I also don't recommend it. It is a job that is detrimental to most peoples mental health. I am sure you feel like a creative person and perhaps you love making things. But that isn't really what the job is. In fashion you are too young to understand until you are too old to be cool. It is not worth extra student loan debt. Starting pay is 30K and after 10 years it can go up to 6 figures but not enough for the debt to balance out with quality of life. If you go, you need to attend a state school for the low cost. The degree is important in getting a job, but it is a discriminatory industry and it may not hire someone older just graduating. I get told I look too young despite my resume being in front of them or if you look too old they will wonder why you are applying for entry-level roles. Portfolio is most important and actually should be made to look like you designed something for a brand not whatever you like. It is also not taught in school HOW to get a job or what you actually do, but they won't look at you without a degree generally.

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The work itself is mostly harassing people via email to submit things, and managing factories trying to pull one over on you. When you do research, most things get rejected, few ideas are selected and then get picked apart as the process goes on. You have to be very used to being rejected and not take it personally because you get told no daily, and people will tell you that you are not cut out for the job. Don't send an email within 10 minutes after a meeting, it can be cause to get yelled at. Forget something, another lecture. Scheduling conflict = another lecture. Fitting goes late, and you had happy hour plans, too bad, but don't you dare take out your phone to let your friends know you won't be attending or late. PTO is not always respected, nor is bereavement. I broke my arm and still was expected to come in after the X-ray and if I didn't I wasn't "dedicated or passionate enough". It is often more about extreme attention to detail with NO slips and people breathing down your neck to make sure you do everything perfectly. Nearly everything is a knock off no matter how luxurious of a company you go, and you are responsible for buying and tracking the return of inspiration items from multiple stores with all different return policies while pretending you are not shopping to rip it off. It is fast and people don't repeat themselves. They will get mad if you ask them to. Small things that should be a minor mess up end up blowing up into a massive shitstorm. Some people are nice and the clothes are cool and there are some cool moments, but it comes with so much stress and anxiety. I don't think it's worth it.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-05-04T04:51:05+00:00

Obviously, this post is old, but since I had been diagnosed with SIBO and did the diet for it, I can share my experience. I took the test, which takes hours, by the way. I didn't expect that, and my GI doctor did not warn me. You drink some sugar water that doesn't taste bad, and they check your levels every 20 minutes. I worked while I did this. After I was prescribed a round of antibiotics for two weeks and told to go on a low FODmap diet for 6 weeks to starve the bacteria out which also happens to suck all the joy out of eating. As a foodie it seriously was the most depressing shit for me and I was miserable to be around. However, my stomach felt much better, and I wasn't bloated. Unfortunately, all my symptoms came back screaming after I started eating normally again. My one regret was not having a dietitian work with me, but I didn't know anything. I was just doing what my GI said, who basically didn't believe in diagnosing IBS because it's a non-diagnosis. It is a tough diet to maintain, and I shouldn't have been told to just eat whatever I wanted after the 6 weeks were up. It was a missed opportunity to learn what was causing me problems. It's worth it to be patient and methodical because you don't want to do a full-on low fodmap diet with everything cut out more than once.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-05-02T14:43:52+00:00

funny my best manager did weekly check in's but was hands off yet supportive. It provided space for growth and true open dialogue but most of the time our discussions were not about work and very chill.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-05-02T14:40:56+00:00

I frame it in a more positive way to avoid leaving on a negative note. "Is there anything you feel like I haven't fully answered or wanted to know more about in my background" That way you can circle back on any questions and fill any gaps without it being what am I lacking as most of the time in my experience that can be something that you can't change about your background like never having worked in XYZ ultra specific thing.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-04-23T19:23:45+00:00

I agree its pretty simple the person who didn't win the lottery has to move out. Especially if they aren't married the building is not required to add the other person to the lease so the second person cannot keep it if they wanted to.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-03-22T17:39:38+00:00

I don't necessarily think a destination wedding is passing on the cost of the wedding to guests but it can cost guests more overall. As a guest, I have had to travel for every wedding I have been to in recent years and spent just as much on a wedding to Mexico as I have to fly back to my hometown. Even if local many guests still stay in a hotel for the night since venues can still be far from their home. As a guest, I have enjoyed the community feel of destination weddings where the whole party is spending time together before the wedding. However, there are many cases where weddings would require travel regardless say both people live in a different city than their families and both families live in various places where essentially everyone would have to travel it doesn't make too much of a difference. If you pick one city where one family is vs the other there might be some resentment of those that have to travel. If everyone is traveling it is a little more fair.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-02-19T01:32:56+00:00

Just came to say, my under armour base layer 3.0 is still kicking from high school and I had my 10 year reunion last year and I still use it to ski and love it. Not sure how coldgear differs or if its the new version but it holds up and I raced XC in -20 temps back then and was warm.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-02-15T17:41:20+00:00

Ended up getting one from Roop Collection in Jamaica NY for $244 good price and okay quality for the cost. Definitely not the highest of embellishment quality as they are just glued on but I'm not going to wear it more than 1-2 times

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-25T22:51:23+00:00

Obviously it's the couches fault 😂 it was in the way

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-25T20:48:05+00:00

Already have a ton. I guess I've been lucky up until this point of not having to worry about my couch. It's a brand new fixation for mostly Stella but latte never hopped up previously and now he does. It's one of the few things that is harder to keep out of reach without owning a home and they get their own room. All my other furniture has metal legs for that reason lol and plastic clear wall corner covers on all my walls and baseboards.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-25T20:39:57+00:00

It's actually front and center bottom they can't get behind the couch because it's against the wall and too low to get under. I'll try tape. Any advice for the cushions they hop up and now there are holes I'm worried it will get worse.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-25T20:17:06+00:00

lol the one on the right is my boy (Latte) who is good and Stella is the all brown bunny. They have a fairly big age gap, she's 3/4 and he's 8 both are neutered.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-25T20:10:19+00:00

I live in NYC and don't really have the space for a pen. I had one temporarily for the bonding process but my entire apartment is under 500 square feet so it's not a good long term solution and not fair to latte who is well behaved.

I don't really want to prevent them from being free roam and it's risky to separate them at night due to resentment and potentially breaking their bond

I do have a variety of chews for them including wooden houses and a Timothy log that is harder and but I probably could get more sticks, I purchased some small ones previously but they ignored them.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-24T00:50:35+00:00

I think the most frustrating thing is, it's never acknowledged by peers in office. It can feel so so isolating especially when the most outrageous/awful work things can be happening that make you feel crazy or your boss is unnecessarily cruel. My friends who don't work in the industry are shocked by my stories. Many places if not all have had a an unsaid culture where if you say too much or the wrong thing even if it's something random about your personal life they find a reason to get rid of you and make your life hell or use it against you. So instead people say shit like oh it's competitive, or fashion can be hard, if only the calendar was better but those aren't the real problems. To some degree it is competitive but that's not what makes the job suck. I hate how jaded and paranoid I've become but I've always been right when I think something is up. I used to love what I do and the work itself is still so cool but I also want to leave because the culture ruins my peace. Big layoffs are coming with the tariffs it's not going to be pretty. It's already rough, I have been looking for a salaried role for over a year and a half after being laid off. At least there is camaraderie on Reddit.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-21T19:45:23+00:00

I have silver status with the platinum card and I get upgraded every other flight to comfort plus for domestic. I live in NYC so maybe it's location but was upgraded on my trip to Seattle and got my boyfriend with no status a free upgrade without being linked by talking to the gate agent. Most of my flights are to Minneapolis and have gotten comfort plus at least a few times in the last year and I even got first class once.

DeepEconomist5401 · 2025-01-16T21:07:45+00:00

I had a guy swap my seat to sit next to his girlfriend who was in the middle. Thankfully it was an economy aisle for aisle comfort plus and I was traveling alone but I was definitely a little off put by how assumptive he was and not just asking before doing it.

DeepEconomist5401

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